


Opportunity lost, Opportunity found

by BabyStepsAreStillSteps



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: By the wonderful and incredible fiovske, Gen, NASA, NASA workers trying their best, Oppy, Oppy’s last transmission, The Opportunity deserved better, inspired by a fan art
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22142206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyStepsAreStillSteps/pseuds/BabyStepsAreStillSteps
Summary: “My battery is low and it’s getting dark.”Tony watched the transmission come in and his eyes flicked to his own bots, who were watching the screen with mournful beeps.Dumm-e in particular was heartbroken, claw drooping as his camera stared sadly at the news. Tony had always suspected his oldest child had developed a bit of a crush on the Opportunity.He looked back at the tv screen as they once again showed an image of the now broken bot.Tony grimaced, his mind automatically filling in the what ifs of if it had been one of his bots. If it was Dumm-e or Butterfingers or U, alone and stranded. Broken on a planet so far from their own.That sealed it, Tony was going to have to do something about this. Afterall, someone had to do it, and if there was one thing Tony was good at, it was fixing bots.NASA wasn’t going to know what hit them.
Relationships: Dummy (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark
Comments: 18
Kudos: 120





	Opportunity lost, Opportunity found

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tony and Nebula fix Oppy up on their way back to Earth](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/548416) by Fiovske. 



> This story was inspired by the incredible artwork of a tumblr artist named Fiovske. The artwork has Nebula in it, and I love my blue meanie, but I couldn’t seem to make the story work with that point in the universe, so this is what I ended up with. Thank you to Fiovske for letting me piggyback off their amazing piece, and if you haven’t seen it already, you should definitely check it out!

“Sir?”

Just one minute. Literally one minute, that’s all Ryan was asking for.

He’d been working hard all night, decommissioning all of the lab computers that had been used for Opportunity transmissions.

It still hurt to think about. He knew it was stupid, the Opportunity was a machine, nothing more.

But it had felt like more. He had listened to that little robot for years. He’d been on the project from day one. When the last transmission came in, he felt like he had lost a friend.

“Sir?” the voice behind him asked again, more insistently this time. He knew without turning around it was Ana, the junior engineer who had been paired with him on the decommissioning project. With a sigh, he turned to face her.

“Yeah, Ana?” he asked, running a tired hand over his face as he blearily wondered if consuming more coffee would cause actual damage to his heart. “What can I help you with, two minutes into my ten minute break?”

“Yeah, sorry, sir,” she brushed off his comment. He wryly noted she didn’t seem very sorry. “I have something you’ll want to see. Now. Like, right now.”

He stood up with a sigh, glancing longingly at his empty coffee mug before he trudged after her. 

He let out another sigh as she led him down the hall and back into the room they had been in for hours.

Various computer parts laid all over the floor, organized by function, readiness, and by which program they were destined to go to.

He and Ana were only halfway through, though, and some machines around the room still stood proudly at their stations.  
  
They were waiting for a message to come in, waiting for a new discovery.

They could wait forever and never know it was over. Never know that chapter of the book was closed, and their opportunity was lost.

Ana picked her way around the various piles and led him to the far corner where a group of computers were still plugged in and humming with energy.

“Did we forget to delete the pointers for the computer port locations before we disconnected them from the server farm?” he asked, slightly annoyed she had interrupted his first break in hours for something that could have waited eight more minutes.

“No, no. I just, I was, I came over to double check that actually, and look what I found.”

She clicked the mouse and a dialogue box came up with the words ‘One new message from Oppy.’

The room seemed to freeze and the air felt like it had been sucked out of his lungs. He fell into the chair beside her when his knees refused to hold him up any longer.

“What -, what’s the message?” He asked weakly, unable to believe he was seeing those words on the screen again.

 _One new message from Oppy._ This was like seeing a ghost.

He wondered distantly if this was a robots version of an ouiju bord.

Ana shook her head. “I don’t know what it says, I went and got you as soon as I saw it.”

“I am officially not mad at you for interrupting my break anymore,” he told her fervently, still unable to look away from the words on the screen.

She huffed a laugh, but quickly refocused. “Should we... I don’t know what the protocol is here. Should we watch it?”

“Well,” he considered, “it’s possible that we are supposed to wait for other team members, but as it’s three a.m., and I will actually literally die of curiosity if we wait until they come in tomorrow, I say we watch it now.”

“Oh, good,” she breathed a sigh of relief. “I was really afraid you were going to make me wait until tomorrow. Ok, are you ready?”

At his nod , she took a deep breath and clicked the button.

As with most messages from Oppy, a video box opened and started playing. At first there was just a visual of the Mars landscape, which was odd as there was usually audio as well, even if it was often just the crunch of Oppy’s tire treads and the whistling Mars breeze.

“Oh, wait, I think the sound on the computer is off, one sec,” Ana muttered, pausing the video as she fiddled with the sound bar. “Ok, there we go. I’m gonna start it over if that’s ok, I always love the sounds of Oppy’s clicks and chirps.”

This time when she played it noise came through the speakers. They were both startled to hear a voice.

“Ok, beautiful, I think I got your new battery hooked in, but don’t try to go anywhere quite yet, I still need to put your tire tread back on track.”

Clicks and gear whirls sounded through the speaker.

“Does that alien’s voice sound familiar to you?” he asked Ana, dumbfounded.

“If... if I didn’t know better,” she paused, looking conflicted on whether or not she wanted to release her thoughts into the world. Finally, after several long seconds of listening to this mysterious alien hum an AC/DC song, she decided to finish her thought. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that alien sounds like Tony Stark.”

Ryan really wished she hadn’t said that, because now that she had, he couldn’t hear anything else. His mind immediately supplied that the humming _did_ sound like Tony Stark, but how would he even know that? He had never heard Tony Stark hum in his entire life. And yet.....

“If I didn’t know better,” he said, his disbelief just as clear, “I’d say you’re right.”

They were saved from further response when the alien started talking again.

“Ok, gorgeous, I got your tread back on track.”

There was a loud, almost reproachful, chirp. Ana and Ryan exchanged a glance. They knew every sound the Opportunity could make. That wasn’t one of them.

“Ok, ok, fine. Dumm-e helped me get your wheel back on track. Dumm-e’s my friendly A.I. robot. He used to watch your transmissions from my lab. I think he’s got a little bit of a crush, so let him down easy, ok, beautiful? 

Long distance relationships are rough, and I really don’t think I can get this favor again just to facilitate my little idiot getting a date.”

There were more sounds of gears whirling and machinery clicking into place.

“Ok, I think we’re done! That battery should last you about fifty years. How’s it feeling, girl? Can you drive? Did we fix your camera mount alright? Can you still see things?”

Ryan’s breath caught in his throat as Oppy slowly rotated in a circle towards the helpful alien. If he didn’t know that this was a secure, highly protected data line, he would have thought he was being pranked.

Standing on Mars, millions of miles away, with a little robot friend, was none other than Ironman. His face plate rose to reveal a clear glass layer and a beaming Tony Stark.

“Well aren’t you just the most gorgeous robot I’ve ever seen. It is an incredible honor to meet you, Miss Opportunity, I am a huge fan of your work.”

The robot next to him tapped his thigh with its claw. Mr. Stark rolled his eyes, but smiled fondly down at the robot next to him.

“Miss Opportunity, this is my robot friend named Dumm-e. He did good work on your tire tread, I wouldn’t have been able to do that on my own.”

Oppy’s camera zoomed in on the robot, who gave a surprisingly endearing wave and a happy chirp. Even more surprisingly, Oppy chirped back. Ryan looked at Ana again.

“Is that a response we programmed into her?” he asked.

“Not to my knowledge,” Ana said, flabbergasted.

The robots exchanged a few more chirps and whirls before Mr. Stark put an end to it.

“Alright, alright, Romeo, we’ve talked about this. Now, Miss Opportunity, could you do a nice spin so we can make sure everything works before we go?”

The camera did a long slow circle before eventually coming back around to a smiling Mr. Stark and a chirping Dumm-e.

“Good,” Mr. Stark said. He reached out a hand and gently patted her head, then took a step back. “Well Miss Opportunity, this has been a true honor. Your creators back at NASA have done an incredible job, you are a masterpiece. I hope you enjoy all of your future adventures and explorations. I can’t wait to see what you find for us. Could you do one more big circle for us? Thanks.”

The camera started a long circular pan again.

“Alright, I think we’re ready to go back. Thanks,” Mr. Stark said, but his statement didn’t sound like it was intended for Oppy.

A strange sound filled the speakers. It sounded a bit like the sparklers that his family would burn on the Fourth of July.

“Dumm-e, you first bud. I’m not gonna risk you staying here with Juliet.”

A sad tone played, and a soft chuckle from Mr. Stark. Then the odd sparkler sound stopped. All of the sound except the wind stopped, and as the camera finally panned back to the starting point, Mr. Stark and Dumn-e were gone.

Oppy looked straight up before she continued her previous motion and completed another full circle.

Ryan and Ana watch with open mouths as another circle and a half were completed and there was still no sign of Mr. Stark or his robot. There was nothing in the sky, and no sound to indicate Ironman had taken off. How in the world?

That was worth repeating.

“How in the world?” Ryan repeated, this time out loud.

Ana just shook her head in amazement, her mouth still hanging open.

“No seriously, how in the world?” Ryan asked again.

“I have no idea, but I think we’re going to need to send this to.... to everyone,” Ana replied in a daze.

Opportunity had moved on from her long panning circles and trundled off towards the crater she had been set to explore before she had died.

“Oppy’s back,” Ryan whispered with a grin.

That statement, and everything it meant, sank in for a moment before Ana gave a loud cheer and yelled, “Oppy’s back!“

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I would love and appreciate any comments or kudos you want to leave! 
> 
> I’d like to say one more time, thank you so much to the talented and wonderful Fiovske, don’t forget to check out their work!


End file.
